Recently, there has been aggressive development by the assignee of the present invention in the use of hollow fiber membranes for the separation of water and hydrocarbons and/or halogenated hydrocarbons. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,941 to John A. Taylor, issued Dec. 13, 1988 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention discloses a method and apparatus for fluid decontamination. The invention provides a process and apparatus for removing corrosive contaminates from hydrocarbon fluids utilizing a separator module comprising a plurality of hollow fiber membranes. The membranes are hollow hydrophobic microporous membrane fibers contained in a bundle within a web. U.S. Ser. No. 194,984 to Taylor, filed May 17, 1988, and also to the assignee of the present invention, discloses an apparatus and method of separating water from a water and hydrocarbon or halogenated hydrocarbon mixture. The invention utilizes a membrane bundle consisting of nonporous selfsupported hollow fibers of cuproammonium cellulose.
Contamination of water with hydrocarbons and halogenated hydrocarbons is a wide spread problem throughout the world. Surface and ground water supplies near industrial operations contain difficult to remove oily contamination. Such installations as petroleum refineries, industrial operations, oil field operations, and oil and gas pipe lines contain water contaminated with hydrocarbon and halogenated hydrocarbon compounds. Often, polychlorinated biphenyl compounds (PCB's) are found as contaminates in water supplies as well. These problems have been present for a significantly long period of time and have not been solved by the existing technology.
For example, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,735,558 to Skarstrom et al discloses a process for separating fluids and an apparatus to be used therewith. The apparatus separates water vapor from air by creating a pressure gradient across the walls of permeable tubes to induce permeation therethrough. A countercurrent reflux flow induces a longitudinal concentration gradient along the walls of permeable tubes which enhance permeation of key components through the walls of the tubes thereby separating them from a mixed fluid feed. The Japanese patent Nos. 13,653 issued Feb. 1, 1979 and 152,679 issued Dec. 1, 1979 both disclose the use of cuproammonium rayon to selectively pass water vapor therethrough. Even though these prior art separation devices have been in existance for over 10 years, the problems of water decontamination have remained unsolved. These are not minor problems, but rather major commercial and environmental problems which industry and government have not been able to solve. There does not presently exist, based on the known prior art, a method or apparatus for reclaiming pure water from water contaminated with hydrocarbons and halogenated hydrocarbons and which process can also concentrate pure hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons, or mixtures of these products for recovery or disposal.
It is an object of the present invention to combine the separation modules which applicant has previously novelly utilized in novel separation systems in conjunction with a presently novel fluid circuit to reclaim pure water from water contaminated with hydrocarbons and halogenated hydrocarbons and which process can also concentrate such pure hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons, or mixtures of these products for recovery or disposal. The present invention requires no ancillary equipment such as coalescers, centrifuges, distalation columns, vacuums, activated carbon, or heat energy to fully accomplish the isolation and purification of water and the recovery and reclamation of the contaminates.